what offerings were made to the goddess brigit
Who is Brigid?
By Branfionn NicGrioghair
Brigid is the Daughter of the Dagda, one of the more universal deities of the pagan Gaelic world. She is known as the Goddess of Healers, Poets, Smiths, Childbirth and Inspiration; Goddess of Fire and Hearth and a patron of warfare or Briga. Her soldiers were chosen Brigands. Her name means "Exalted One." She is also known as Brigantia, Brid, Bride, Briginda, Brigdu, and Brigit. She is said to lean over every cradle. The lore and customs have connected to this day regarding Brighid, more vividly than all the other Gaelic deities combined.
In the center ages, Brigid is in many stories. In i she is the wife of Bres, the half-Fomorian ruler of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Their son, Ruadan, wounded the smith god Giobhniu at the 2d battle of Magh Tuireadh only he himself was slain in the gainsay. Brigid then went to the battleground to mourn her son. This was said to be the starting time caoine (keening), or complaining, heard in Ireland. Until contempo time, information technology was a tradition to hire women to caoine at every graveside. In another story, Brighid was the wife of Tuireann and had three sons: Brian, Iuchar and Ircharba. In the tale, The Sons of Tuirean, these iii killed the god Cian, father of Lugh Lámhfhada when he was in the class of a pig.(2)
She was transformed by the Church building of St. Brigid into St. Brigid most 453 C.E. Saint Brighid is known as the patroness of subcontract work and cattle, and protector of the household from burn and cataclysm. To this day, one of her most mutual names in Gaelic is Muime Chriosd, "Foster-Mother of Christ." St. Brigid was said to exist the daughter of Dubthach, a Druid who brought her from Ireland to be raised on the Isle of Iona, sometimes chosen "The Druid'southward Island."
"A fascinating link to the traditions of the saint Brigid is the fact that a woman called Darlughdacha appears in St. Brigid's community in Kildare as her close companion, sharing Brigid's bed. Darlughdacha, who became abbess of Kildare on Brigid's death, means 'daughter of Lugh' and the 'saints' lists' also give her feastday every bit 1st February...Mary Condren thinks that Darlughdacha might even be the original proper name for the goddess Brigid, presumably equally Brigid (Exalted I) is a title rather than a name." (2)
It is said that past repeating the genealogy of Brigid, you volition always exist protected.
"This is the geneology of the holy maiden Bride,
Radiant flame of gold, noble foster mother of Christ,
Bride, daughter of Dugall the Dark-brown*,
Son of Aodh, son of Art, son of Conn,
Son of Crearer, Son of Cis, son of Carmac, son of Carruin,
Every twenty-four hours and every night
That I say the genealogy of Helpmate,
I shall not exist killed, I shall not exist harried,
I shall not be put in a cell, I shall not be wounded,
Neither shall Christ leave me in forgetfulness.
No fire, no lord's day, no moon shall burn me,
No lake, no water, nor sea shall drown me,
No arrow of fairy nor dart of fay shall wound me
And I under the protection of my Holy Mary
And my gentle foster-mother is my beloved Bride." (1)
One of the well-nigh aboriginal rituals known is reflected in this slice. It is known as the Iii-fold Death past burning, drowning and stabbing. This was usually the form of death of the Sacred King, after which fourth dimension, he became i with his Land.
"Brigid is known in the Hebrides as the foster female parent of Christ, and this clearly shows the mixing of Christian and pagan influence that is so mutual here. As foster mother she is of grade exceptionally honoured, since in Celtic society the foster parents had special place, they ranked higher than the natural parents, the relationship being considered extremely sacred." (3)
"St. Brigid (in Gaelic pronounced sometimes Bride, sometimes Breed), St. Bride of the Isles every bit she is lovingly called in the Hebrides, has no name then dear to the Gael every bit "Muime-Chriosd", Christ'due south Foster-Mother, a name bestowed on her by ane of the almost cute of Celtic legends. In the isles of Gaelic Scotland, her about familiar name is Brighid nam Bhatta, St Briget or St. Helpmate of the Mantle - from her having wrapt the new-born Babe in her Curtain in Mary'south hour of weakness. She did not come into the Gaelic heart with the Cantankerous and Mary, only was there long before equally Bride, Brighid or Brighid of the Dedannans, those not immortal but for long ages deathless folk who to the Gael were equally the Olympians to the Greeks. That earlier Brighid was goddess of poetry and music, one of the 3 great divinities of love, goddess of women, the keeper of prophecies and dreams, the watcher of the greater destinies, the guardian of the time to come. I think she was no other than the Celtic Demeter - that Demeter- Desphoena built-in of the cover of Poseidon, who in turn is no other than Lir, the Oceanus of the Gael, and instead of Demeter seeking and lamenting Persephone in the underworld, it is Demeter- Brighid seeking her brother (or, it may exist, her son) Manan (Manannan), God of the Sea, son of Oceanus, Lir...Persephone and Manan are symbols of the same Return to Life." (nine)
"Ó'Hógáin makes connections between the saint, the goddess, the sunday, verse, cows, Vedic tradition and the Goddess Boann (eponym of the River Boyne), who may have been the mother of Brigit, and whose proper noun seems to come from bo/-fhionn (white cow, she of white cattle,) cognate with Sanskrit Govinda." (5)
"The epithet búadach, 'victorious'...is one commonly applied to Brigit...A national saint in her ain right, Brigit has been somewhat overshadowed past Patrick, only the variants of her proper name current for Irish gaelic girls are in themselves evidence of her indelible importance: compare the forms Brigid, Breege, Breda, Breed, Helpmate, Bridie, abreast the diminutive in -een. Behind the Christian saint of the hagiographers and the accounts of wonders ucriously performed, and behind the oral and literary traditions, i tin can spy the figure of a pre-Christian goddess. Brigit is represented in the early on poetry as Mother of Christ and equal in rank to Mary, and as 'The Mary of the Gael". Hence the tradition of Brigit goes deeper equally well as further back than that of the Briton, Patrick." (4) And from the same volume on page l, this poem:
Brigit Búadach
| "Brigit Búadach, Búaid na fine, Siur Ríg nime, Nár in duine, Eslind luige, Lethan breo. Ro-siacht noí:bnem Mumme Goídel, Riar na northward-oíged, Oíbel ecnai, Ingen Dubthaig, Duine úallach, Brigit búadach, Brigit búadach, | "Victorious Brigit, |
To this twenty-four hour period there is the unusual blending of Brighid the ancient Goddess with the Saint and how typically Gaelic this is; this mixture of Christian and Old Celtic and heathen lore, exemplified in poetry like this:
| Is tu gleus na Mnatha Sithe, Is tu beus na Helpmate bithe, Is tu creud na Moire mine, Is tu gniomh na mnatha Greuig, Is tu sgeimh na h'Eimir aluinn, Is tu mein na Dearshul agha, Is tu meann na Meabha laidir, Is tu taladh Binne-bheul. | Thine is the skill of the Fairy Woman, **Literally "honey-mouthed" (9) |
"...And I was putting another word to information technology, for her, off-white Foster-Mother of Christ, when she looked at me and said, "I am older than Brighid of the Mantle...I put songs and music on the wind before e'er the bells of the chapels were rung in the West or heard in the East. I am Brighid-nam-Bratta, but I am too Brighid-Muirghin-na-tuinne, and Brighid-sluagh, Brighid-nan-sitheachseang, Brighid-Binne-Bheule-lhuchd -nan-trusganan-uaine, and I am older than Aone and am as one-time as Luan. And in Tir-na-h'oige my name is Suibhal-bheann; in Tir-fo-thuinn information technology is Cú-gorm; and in Tir-na-h'oise it is Sireadh-thall. And I have been a breath in your heart. And the day has its feet to it that volition see me coming into the hearts of men and women similar a flame upon dry out grass, like a flame of wind in a great forest..."
"The other names are one-time Gaelic names: Brighid-Muirghin-na-tuinne, Brighid Formulation of the Waves; Brighid-Sluagh (or Sloigh), Brighid of the Immortal host; Brighid-nan-sitheachseang, Brighid of the Slim Fairy Folk; Brighid-Binne-Bheule-lhuchd-nan-trusganan-uaine, Song-sweet (literally: melodious mouth'd) Brighid of the Tribe of the Green Mantles. She is too called Brighid of the Harp, Brighid of the Sorrowful, Brighid of Prophecy, Brighid of Pure Honey, St. Helpmate of the Isles, Helpmate of Joy and other names. Aona is an occasional and ancient course of Di-Aoin, Fri and Luan of Diluain, Monday."
"Tir-na-h'oige (commonly anglicised as Tirnanogue) in the Land of (Eternal) Youth; Tir-fo-thuinn is the Country of the Waves and Tir-na-h'oise is the Country of Ancient Years. The fairy names Suibhal-bheann, Cú-gorm; and Sireadh-thall respectively mean Mountain-traveller, Grey Hound and Seek-Across...."
"...that older Brighid of the West, Mother of Songs and Music - she who breathes in the reed, on the air current, in the hearts of women and in the minds of poets...Banmorair-na-mara, the Lady of the Sea...a woman of the divine folk, who was called the Lady of the Body of water, and was a daughter of Lir, and went lamenting upon the earth because she had lost her brother Manan the Beautiful, but came upon him at concluding...and wooed him with songs and flowers and brought him dorsum again, so that the world of men rejoiced, and ships sailed the seas in safety and nets were filled with the fruit of the wave...that passing world of songs and dazzler, of poets' dreams and of broken hearts, that even at present...is loved again by Brighid the White..."
"(And with you for guidance be)
The fairy swan of Bride of flocks,
The fairy duck of Mary of peace." (nine)
Brigid and the Sacred Flame
In her earliest incarnation, as Breo-Saighit, she was called the Flame of Republic of ireland, Peppery Arrow. She was a Goddess of the forge every bit well, reflecting on her fire aspect. Legend says that when She was born, a tower of flame reaching from the peak of her head to the heavens. Her nativity, which took identify at sunrise, is rumored to have given the family house the appearance of being on burn.
For many centuries, at that place were 19 virgins (originally priestesses and later nuns) who tended Her eternal flame at Kildare. There they are said to accept sung this song (until the 18th century):
"Bride, fantabulous woman,
sudden flame,
may the fiery, vivid sun
take us to the lasting kingdom."
These women were the virgin daughters of the Fire and were chosen Inghean au dagha; only, every bit fire-keepers, were Breochwidh. The Brudins, a place of magical cauldron and perpetual fires, disappeared when Christianity took concur. "Existence in the Brudins" now ways in the fairies. Brigid's shrine at Kildare was agile into the 18th century. Information technology was closed down by the monarchy. Originally cared for by nineteen virgins, when the Pagan Brigid was Sainted, the care of her shrine savage to Catholic nuns. The burn was extinguished once in the thirteenth century and was relit until Henry Eight of England fix about supressing the monastaries. (8) Sister Mary Minchin, a Brigedian nun at Kildaire relit the flame on Febuary two, 1996 and the intention is to continue information technology called-for perpetually once again.
In an aboriginal Irish text Giraldus Cambrensis, she and nineteen of her nuns took turns in guarding a sacred burn down which burned perpetually and was surrounded by a hedge within which no male might enter. In this, Brigid is like the Gaulish 'Minerva'." In Minerva's sanctuary in Britain there was likewise a perpetual flame. According to the Irish Text "The Book of Dunn Moo-cow," Brigid'southward sacred number was nineteen, representing the nineteen-year cycle of the Celtic Groovy Year, the time it took from ane new moon to the adjacent to coincide with the Wintertime Solstice. It was believed though, that on the twentieth day of each bicycle Brigid herself would tend the flame.
Of this fire, information technology was said, during the time of the Norman conquest, that although it was fed the sacred woods of the hawthorn over a long period of time, "yet the ashes have never increased." The area was said to be twenty feet foursquare with a roof. The sacred fire was sometimes called a "need-fire." Alexander Carmichael, the author of Carmina Gadelica, states that "teine éiginn was last made in Uist about 1829, in Arran about 1820, in Helmsdale most 1818, and in Reay nearly 1830." (one)
Patroness of the hearth
The household fire is sacred to Brigid. The fire should be kept going, and each evening the woman of the household would smoor the fire, (encompass it over to keep the fire overnight), asking for the protection of Brigid on all its occupants. The post-obit is from volume three of the Carmina Gadelica:
Smúraidh mi an tula
Mar a smúradh Brighde Muime.
Ainm naomh na Muime
Bhith mu'north tula, bhith mu'n tán,
Bhith mu'n ardraich uile.
I volition smoor the hearth
As Brighid the Fostermother would smoor
The Fostermother's holy name
Be on the hearth, be on the herd
Exist on the household all. (1)
Patroness of the smiths
Every bit patroness of Smiths, there is the mention of a forge in a Old Irish gaelic poem in praise of Brigid. The poem contrasts Brigid's lasting strength to the passing glory of the Fortress of Alenn, where once were witnessed:
Glés a hindeón cotad cúar,
clúas a dúan practise thengthaib bard,
bruth a fer fri comlann nglan,
cruth a ban fri oenach n-ard.The ringing of its busy aptitude anvils,
the audio of songs from poets' tongues
the heat of its men at make clean competition,
the beauty of its women at high assembly.
Beannachtaí ar an gCeárta -- Blessings on the Forge! (5)
Brigid and the sacred wells
In a Druidic ritual, Brigid is honored with a central well containing candles. Information technology was mutual in olden times to dress the well with flowers and greenery. Often coins and other argent objects were offered to the well. Many of Brigid's Holy Wells nevertheless exist, some sacred to Her for thousands of years. Her waters were said to heal all style of disease. (5)
"I alive in the Hebrides, in one of the many parishes of Kilbride that you lot find all over the islands. I've also visited several of her sacred wells in Republic of ireland, where you detect all sorts of votive offerings laid out (and no-one ever touches them). The all-time site was a kind of grotto, at Kilfenora in Co. Clare - it'south a very of import shrine to Saint Bride, and information technology is looked after past nuns. The feeling there was wonderful." Lorraine Macdonald. (three)
Brigid and the sacred globe
On Imbolc, in Ireland, they make Helpmate's Cantankerous. Brigit'due south cross is usually iii-legged; in other words, a triskele, which has been identified as an ancient solar symbol. It is sometimes also fabricated as an fifty-fifty-armed cross woven of reeds. Rites for Bride accept been preserved to this day by the women of the Outer Hebrides. At La Fheill Brighid, the women gather and make an epitome of the Goddess as Maiden. They dress her in white and place a crystal over her heart and place her in a cradle-like basket. Bride is then invited into the business firm by the female caput of the household with sacred vocal and with chanting. (6)
At that place is also the tradition of leaving a loaf of breadstuff, pitcher of milk and a candle out for Brigid. the villagers of Avebury in Wiltshire climb the earthen mound chosen Silbury Hill to eat fig cakes and saccharide and water. They also climb Cley Hill to play a game inside the earthwork at the summit. (6)
The references in the Carmina Gadelica to the ophidian coming out of the mound on Latha Fheill Bride from these older associations; that she may be a Fomorian Earth goddess. (3)
In support of this, there is an aboriginal rhyme which is still said in the Western Highlands:
"Early on Bride's morn
The serpent shall come from the hole.
I will not molest the serpent
Nor will the serpent molest me. (vii)
Sources
1. Carmina Gadelica, past Alexander Carmichael
2. Celtic Women past Peter Berresford Ellis ISBN 0-8028-3808-1
3. Dal Riada Celtic Heritage Trust, Registered Scottish Charity, Island of Arran, Lorraine Macdonald.
4. Dánta Ban: Poems of Irish Women Early and Modernistic - A Collection
five. E-mail from "Donncha, Dennis King.
6. Burn down Worship in Britain by T. F. G. Dexter
7 The Sociology of the Scottish Highlands by Anne Ross, ISBN 0-87471-836-eight
7. Irish Druids and Sometime Irish Religions by James Bonwick
9. Winged Destiny by Fiona MacLeod
Copyright © 1997 Branfionn NicGrioghair. Internet and other uses allowed then long as text is used in full, for educational purposes without profit, with all credits given, links provided to Branfionn NicGrioghair and this copyright tag fastened, all other rights reserved. Branfionn NicGrioghair branfionn@mindspring.com. P.O. Box 602696. Cleveland OH 44102.
This page was last updated on Friday, 1st February 2022 @ 8:05:08
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